


This is the First Date of My Life

by elsalapizza (lamerezouille)



Series: SPN Fluff Bingo [12]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, First Date, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 21:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16941372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamerezouille/pseuds/elsalapizza
Summary: Dean's first date with Castiel didn't go as well as expected. Dean hopes a detour by the local park might make it better. It does not, until it does.





	This is the First Date of My Life

**Author's Note:**

> Written for #spnadventcalendar2018 on tumblr. Day 10 prompt: "A quiet walk in the snow"  
> Square #7 fill on my SPN fluff bingo card "Locked in a playground"  
> Titled after the Bright Eyes song "First Day of My Life"

All right. So maybe this date hadn’t been the greatest so far. Maybe it hadn’t even really been great at all. But it hadn’t been bad either, not at all. Dean would give it a solid _good_. Good was not great, but good still was good. Wasn’t it?

Dean glanced at Cas, who was walking beside him on the sidewalk. Much too far if you asked Dean. He itched to grip Cas’s hand in is, but he didn’t know if the date had been good enough for that. Plus Dean’s hand was slightly sweating right now, and he didn’t want bad hand-holding to dissuade Cas from a goodnight kiss.

He didn’t have a lot of hope for one of those, but still. He just thought it could be very nice.

It wasn’t because Cas had been more awkward and quiet than usual that everything was over. It wasn’t because Dean’s jokes hadn’t elicited more than a few small chuckles that Cas would never want to see him again. Right?

It was only a first date, it was meant to be built on. Things would get more comfortable as they got used to the new status in their relationship. And, worst-case scenario, even if they didn’t…they would still be friends, wouldn’t they? They had been friends first after all, and Dean was not ready to lose Cas completely just because he was a subpar romantic prospect.

God, please, don’t let him lose Cas.

Dean was desperate to turn the tides on this date, and to make it _very good_ instead of simply _good_ (and let’s be real, he definitely would settle for _quite good_ , he was not even picky anymore at this point). He was so desperate indeed that when they reached the last section of street before Cas’s car, he blurted out, like the very suave man that he was, “Let’s take a detour by the park!”

Dean’s voice was pitched higher than usual and Cas startled, almost slipping on the snow-covered pavement.

Nice work, Winchester. Why not just send the guy you’ve got the biggest crush on to the hospital on your first date?

“Of course,” Cas answered with one of his softest smiles, and Dean declared this last-ditch idea a success. “This park is truly lovely covered in snow.”

So they went for a quiet stroll in the park. This was romantic, right? Dean was definitely too stressed out to assess the romanticism of the situation. Plus, it felt like the cold winter night was slowly starting to turn the sweat gathering on his palms into ice. Dean cursed himself for not having chosen to wear gloves.

Dean tried to relax. Cas was smiling; he seemed to genuinely enjoy this walk idea. Things were going to be good. Dean was a bit disappointed that things between them hadn’t gone immediately from Cas accepting to go on a date with him to happy ever after, but relationships took work, and Dean wasn’t afraid to work for it. Cas was definitely worth it.

Maybe Dean would dare to try and kiss Cas tonight. Maybe Cas would even kiss him back.

Dean was thinking very hard on an action plan that would _not_ make him look like a creep when suddenly they were on the other side of the park. God, was this park really this small or had Dean just spent a whole lot of time thinking about Cas without interacting with him at all? He definitely had to get a grip on himself.

Except when they reached the park’s exit, it turned out they couldn’t actually…exit. The wrought-iron door was locked, and definitely not climbable. This park was definitely not as nice had Dean thought it would be.

“Let’s just keep walking, then,” Dean suggested, trying to sound like he had everything under control.

They went all around the park, arriving back at the entrance through which they had come in, and Dean even managed to hold part of a conversation. Things were starting to look up when they both realized at the same time that the other park door was also locked.

“I…I don’t…What’s going on?” Dean stammered, feeling the _good_ he’d awarded this date slip through his fingers and turning quickly into a _meh_.

“I think we went over the park’s opening hours, Dean,” Cas said evenly, pointing at a sign on the side of the door. That explained that at least. “We must have come in just as the park employee responsible for locking it up left. Look, though. There’s a number to call in case of emergency.”

So they called the number, and were told by a bored-sounding city employee that someone would come get them out in twenty to thirty minutes. O joy.

So that was it: the worst date ever. Maybe not in the history of the world, but definitely in the history of Dean Winchester. He’d had so much hope for tonight, but now he was gonna lose Cas forever. Dean’s self-loathing inside voice told him he hadn’t deserved him in the first place anyway.

“I’m so sorry, Cas,” Dean said as they sat down on a pair of swings, settling for their twenty-to-thirty minutes wait.

“This is not your fault, Dean,” Cas said, because of course Cas was gonna give him a pass. He was just perfect this way.

“Don’t spare my feelings, Cas. I just…I wanted this date to be perfect, and I’ve just acted like a complete moron all evening. I would completely understand if you didn’t—”

“What do you mean?” Cas asked, interrupting Dean’s self-flagellating spiral before it could really build steam. “Was this…was this a date?”

Dean paused. Of course it was a date! How could Cas not know that? He was the one who’d agreed to it! Cas’s surprise did look genuine and so very elated though, so Dean didn’t let himself get too annoyed. “Well, yeah! Wasn’t it obvious? I cooked you dinner and we went to a movie, and I spent the whole walk through here trying to psych myself into holding your hand! Of course it was a date!”

“I…” Cas hesitated, and Dean was sure for a few seconds that despite every sign to the contrary, this was the moment that Cas was going to laugh at his face and decide to stay away from Dean for good. “I realized that something was different than usual between us, but because you never actually said the word ‘date’,” Cas went on, his hands in his lap and his cheeks reddening a bit, “I didn’t dare hope. I feared that if I acted on my suspicions and was wrong, it might damage our friendship irrevocably.”

Dean frowned. He tried to remember exactly how he’d asked Cas on this date but drew a blank. Knowing himself, it wasn’t unrealistic to think he’d forgotten to say the D-word though.

“So that’s why things were so…awkward?” Dean asked, tentatively. Dean felt like the biggest idiot in the world, having his crush not know they were on an actual date, but he suddenly felt more hopeful than he’d been all night. Despite everything, this was actually good news, very good news.

“I’m not known for having the best social skills,” Cas admitted, still not meeting Dean’s gaze.

“Well, this evening proved I’m not the best communicator on this face of the earth either,” Dean answered, reaching for Cas’s hands. “Let’s start again, okay?”

Cas finally looked up toward Dean, and even in the dark, his smile was blinding.

Dean got out from his swing, then down on one knee and, still holding Cas’s hands in his, asked in the cheesiest way possible, “Cas Novak, do you want to go on a date with me?”

“It will be my pleasure, Dean,” Cas answered solemnly, making Dean confident that he’d managed to look more charming than pathetic.

Later, after the city employee got them out and Dean got to kiss Cas after accompanying him back in his car, he decided firmly that, official first date or not, good or bad, this evening would definitely go down in history.

He couldn’t wait for their actual first date.

**Author's Note:**

> [rebloggable on tumblr ♥](http://elsalapizza.tumblr.com/post/180994787130/fic-this-is-the-first-date-of-my-life)


End file.
